Meeting with Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi

I am very pleased to be able to meet with you again and, in this face-to-face
meeting, would like to heartily congratulate you on your party’s victory in the elections and your resounding victory and re-election as India’s Prime
Minister.

Mr Prime-Minister, in the course of the past years, we have done a great
deal to promote our interstate relations. They have developed steadily,
including through your personal efforts and your attention to the development
of Russian-Indian relations. As you know – I have told you about this already –you
have been decorated with the highest state award of the Russian Federation, the Order of St Andrew the Apostle. I would like to congratulate you on this as well and express my hope that after your re-election, our work on promoting
bilateral contacts and relations for the benefit of the peoples of India and the Russian Federation will continue.

We have a very busy agenda ahead – and not just within the framework of our work here in Bishkek, but also at various other platforms that we plan to use for further communication. Apart from everything else, I would like to invite you to be the main guest of the Eastern Economic Forum, which will be
held in Vladivostok in September.

I am here in my capacity as Prime
Minister, and I am glad to meet with you after my re-election. You
congratulated me even before the final results were announced. You came to India last year. In some sense, you predicted my victory last year. Your belief
and confidence, coming from a close friend like you, mean a lot to me. I would
like to sincerely thank you for this.

I would also like to express my sincere gratitude to you for decorating me with a state award. This is a great
honour for me. I know that it is the highest Russian state award. I would also
like to express my gratitude on behalf of the Indian people.

Speaking about the production of Kalashnikovs, you supported this decision and you were personally involved in it. I would also like to express my sincere gratitude for this. If we really set
our minds to achieving something, we can do a great deal within a very definite
timeframe. This is an excellent example of what we both were able to accomplish.
We have created an atmosphere of friendship. Of course, this is very advantageous.
Being India’s old friend is also very important for our relations.

I would like to thank you once
again. I hope that we will soon meet again in Japan. I believe that we should
also hold talks in the RIC format there – Russia–India–China, and we should continue
to meet at other venues as well.